The present invention relates to an improved dye laser amplifier and method therefor.
Dye laser amplifiers are well known in the prior art and hence the operation of such dye laser amplifiers need not be described in any great detail, other than by means of general observations. Prior art dye laser amplifiers operate with a dye beam input to a dye cell such that the dye beam intensity generally increases across the width of the dye cell. The intensity (generally measured in terms of joules per square centimeter) of the dye beam at the input and output windows, respectively, of the dye cell cannot exceed a damage threshhold which is generally known. That is to say, if the dye beam intensity is greater than a predetermined value at the input and/or output windows of the dye cell, damage can result to the windows and therefore the amplifier itself. Consequently, dye amplifiers are designed with the dye beam having a predetermined "design" intensity value, which is less than the above-referenced threshold. In general, this known threshhold depends upon the material making up each window and its thickness.
As power requirements in dye laser amplifiers continue to increase, such as in laser isotope separation (LIS) processes, the attendant capital costs increase in the form of increased pumping beam power to the dye laser amplifier itself. Consequently, as more pumping beams are required, the capital costs of the overall LIS process greatly increase.
As described above, a typical prior art approach for dye laser amplifiers is for the intensity of the dye beam to gradually increase over the width of the dye cell, while maintaining the dye beam intensity below the known damage intensity values for the input and output windows of the dye cell. This approach has limited the overall. efficiency capability (because of the limit on the dye beam intensity), thus increasing the capital costs.